Watch trailer for indie-rock poster documentary

With a title like Died Young, Stayed Pretty, Eileen Yaghoobian's forthcoming documentary about indie rock's underground poster culture would seem to promise a packed punch of scandal and rough-and-tumble, no-holds-barred wrasslin' in the art community. But the recently released trailer opens with two guys discussing octopus imagery—not exactly WWE.

Still, Yaghoobian's work looks to be a fascinating take on the genesis and interplay of the handmade poster art that has given an aesthetic to indie rock for so many years. The filmmaker crisscrossed North America with her crew to interview some of the scene's giants, who have created emblematic posters for bands ranging from Sonic Youth and The Melvins to newer royalty like The Shins and Arcade Fire.

And it seems that Died Young might do as much to narrate that community into historical existence as it does to chronicle its past. "If there was a scene, I didn't know about it. It was never really, like 'I'm going to hang out in the poster scene,'" says one artist in the trailer.

The film's website draws some political undertones into the mix, too, describing the culture's inhabitants as having "their own visual language for describing the spotty underbelly of western civilization" and not being "shy about throwing it in the face of polite society."

No word yet on a release date or screenings, but the film will show as an official selection at the Montreal Film Festival, which runs Aug. 21 to Sept. 1. You can watch the trailer here:



Related links:
DiedYoungStayedPretty.com
Yaghoobian.com
Died Young Stayed Pretty on MySpace

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